The battle began without a signal, with both sides starting simultaneously.
I held the Ore Tree, watching every move of my opponent, trying to exploit any opening. Timing my approach, I saw my chance, instantly leaning forward and leaping to close the distance.
I thought it was a good timing.
However, whether my thoughts were seen through or my opponent had the same idea, the Dragon King reacted instantly and resumed the fight by spitting a breath at me from the very first move, intending to blow me away.
The silver torrent of breath was approaching.
Its destructive power was enough to gouge the earth and swallow the air, which alone was terrifying.
There was no “technique” in the battle of a being like him, who possessed the body of a giant Western dragon.
Merely swinging his massive body was a disaster in itself.
There was no room for human technique.
If there was any, perhaps it was the pinnacle of wild instinct, fully utilized.
The extreme reaction displayed at that pinnacle.
I couldn’t afford to be intimidated.
Because I knew the consequences of faltering.
Embracing the fear, I forced a grin onto my lips and moved my body.
As the breath approached, I instinctively shifted my forward momentum to the left and leaped sideways as if to fly away, dodging the breath.
But the opponent, as if to pursue me, then swept his breath horizontally.
A true pinnacle of wildness.
Instinctively, at every moment, he understood and chose which part of his body was most suitable for attack and defense, and then unleashed it.
He reacted as if he knew the answer within the battle.
To counter such a thing, a similar level of reaction was required.
My body reacted the moment the visual information reached my spinal cord, even before I could think.
I landed with a jump, applying the brakes.
Using the recoil generated from that, I leaped over the horizontally sweeping breath with a somersault, shifting from left to right. I watched the silver roar pass beneath me, and as I landed, I instantly dashed forward.
The opponent’s posture was disrupted by the momentum of his horizontal breath attack.
Visual information and experience predicted the subsequent development.
With thoughts formulated in less than a few moments, my instinct declared it was a chance, and without hesitation, I followed its instruction and rushed to his feet.
My instinct urged me to get closer, to make my attack reach.
But the being before me wasn’t going to allow me to act as I envisioned.
He interrupted his continuous breath, pulling it back as if swallowing it, and used his foreleg to push me away. I stopped my feet and retreated to evade it.
What followed was a flowing series of follow-up attacks.
If I distanced myself slightly, he bared his fangs; if I moved behind him, he swung his tail; and if I jumped to evade that, he unleashed his breath. To avoid it, I created a foothold with magic and counterattacked with lightning magic, but his wings, which covered the sky, blocked my magic.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■!!”
A momentary exchange.
He reacted before I could think, making me feel as if all my thoughts were being read.
Perhaps dragons in their dragon form couldn’t speak, but I was enveloped in a wild roar as I landed, and that reverberating roar shook the dungeon.
Honestly, fighting an opponent like this made me want to call him the final boss, but even such a being was not the top-tier combat power of the Demon Lord’s Army; he was not *the* top.
“Ah, I’m about to lose my will.”
I let out a wry smile at the thought that there was someone even above him, muttered insincere words, and after chasing away my weakness, I glanced behind me to see the devastation wrought by that brief exchange.
The unleashed breath had gouged the earth, altering the landscape; his flapping wings had created tornadoes and changed the weather; and his stomping feet had caused earthquakes and landslides.
It felt like I was facing a real natural disaster.
While thinking to myself, *I’m just a tiny human*.
“Oraaaaaaaa!!”
Not to be outdone, I re-energized myself and roared back at his roar with a monkey’s cry, then moved my body.
I charged again with renewed vigor.
Close the distance.
Even if the ground I was about to step on was more dangerous than a storm, it was the only place with a chance of victory.
I swung the Ore Tree to ward off the approaching threat.
Responding to the disaster with a disaster, I unleashed magic with the momentum to destroy the dungeon.
There was no holding back, no room for error. If I relaxed even a little, I would be devoured.
Not allowing even the slightest hesitation, I shattered the ground with a full-powered step, gaining momentum to advance several meters.
As the breath approached for the third time, I deflected it with the Ore Tree, now cloaked in my armor-casting magic, and in return, I unleashed an anti-army magic.
All of his attacks felt like natural disasters.
Complete evasion was impossible.
With every movement, with every attack received, I sustained small injuries, but I couldn’t afford to care.
There was an enemy before me that I needed to defeat. Move your arms, don’t stop your feet, turn your head, send oxygen to your blood.
Don’t stop thinking, don’t stop your feet, don’t stop your arms, keep your heart beating.
“Damn it! They don’t even get a scratch!!”
“■■■■■■■■■■!!”
Even if the results were not forthcoming, I would not loosen my grip.
If it didn’t work once, try twice; if it didn’t work twice, try thrice.
If it still didn’t work, I would just repeat it until it did.
But even such efforts were rendered futile by a single strike of his tail.
As I lunged and attacked, the sensation from the tip of my slash was simply “hard.”
It was frustrating that I couldn’t cut it when I thought I could.
I knew I didn’t have time for it, but I felt like giving him the middle finger and getting angry.
Even the trump cards I had at hand wouldn’t leave so much as a scratch.
Well, technically, they did leave scratches, but they were all minor.
Take Mikazuuchi, the full-power release technique, was simply defended against and left him unharmed. The focused Sea God’s Point only grazed the surface of his scales, leaving barely a scratch.
“Rend all! Kagutsu-tsuchi!!”
Moreover, the technique I now possessed was the most powerful I had.
It was a technique that condensed my power into the Ore Tree, wrapping it with advanced flame magic, magic known as the primordial flame.
Its range was shorter than any other technique, but its compressed power rivaled that which cut through Evia-san’s magic sword.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!”
The blade glowed red, and the air rippled.
The Dragon King seemed intent on meeting the intensely heated single strike with a breath from his presumably world-shattering fangs.
If I were to be caught in such a thing, I would be defenseless.
But there was no time to change course now.
I would use Kagutsu-tsuchi to force my way through, creating a path by colliding with his breath.
“Guaa”
I had experienced receiving breath head-on many times before, but I could clearly feel the difference in pressure compared to past dragons.
However, I couldn’t give up on this strike because of such a thing.
To counter the steadily pushing force, I clenched my jaw, and instead of pushing back.
“What do you think you’re made ofeee!!”
I succeeded in deflecting it by swinging it sideways.
Don’t get complacent, I urged my legs on and kicked off the ground of the now unrecognizable gorge, thrusting forward.
Weaving through the breath, I finally made contact with his foreleg.
“Kiiyahhhhhhh!!”
With a single burst of spirit.
I had given up on hitting his torso from the start.
So I decided to take his foreleg.
I dodged his downward-swung right foreleg with a sudden stop, and without time to worry about the strain on my legs, I accelerated from zero to top speed.
A horizontal slash.
I delivered that strike near the Dragon King’s ankle.
“…Seriously?”
I had expected him to be hard.
Still, I was confident that this single strike would cut him.
But.
“Just how hard are you?”
Along with that excitement, my confidence was shattered.
The blade of the Ore Tree had indeed dug in.
Half of the blade was buried, and the blade had certainly passed through.
But it didn’t go any further.
The power was attenuated by his scales, and the hard flesh beyond was stopped by the blade.
My first clean hit, and the result of that attack made even me break out in a cold sweat.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!”
Being able to evade in such a state was nothing short of the result of daily training.
I instinctively released the connection with the Ore Tree and let go of it, escaping from his opposing foreleg that was being swung down.
He looked at the embedded Ore Tree with annoyance for a few seconds before swinging his foreleg and throwing it far away.
Weapon lost.
My magic power had also been considerably consumed during the battle.
Desperate.
All plans exhausted.
At this point, I almost clung to the faint hope that the Dragon King before me would get bored and leave, but.
“Kaha, you’re relentless.”
I let out a smile that could be taken as a wry one and faced the spirited Dragon King.
Honestly, generating more power than that would be difficult.
I had to think of a way to break through, but…
My only lifeline, the Ore Tree, had fallen into the gorge below.
I wanted to go pick it up, but it seemed he wouldn’t allow it.
I could feel myself being driven into a corner.
“Well then, let’s see if fists will do.”
My only backup weapon was an emergency dagger.
Now that the Ore Tree was useless, I knew better than anyone that the dagger wouldn’t work either.
My only reliance was my own body.
If so, it would be better to use my magic-imbued fists, so I switched to unarmed combat.
“■■■■■■”
The Dragon King growled, staring intently at me.
Was this the end? Normally, I would give up, but.
“Unfortunately, I’m not the type to give up easily, so I’ll struggle for a while longer!”
I’m not the type to be dignified.
My limbs were still functioning.
I would fight until I couldn’t anymore, and I kicked off the ground.
I charged forward, closing the already shortened distance.
My opponent’s attacks were basically evasions, but not all of them could be dodged.
I parried with a palm strike, and blood spattered as a result.
“Ngh”
I felt pain, but more than caring about it, I clenched that blood and used it as a medium for magic.
Blood is a medium that stores mana in myself.
Using that blood, I could increase the power of my magic.
“…”
Lightning, water, and fire were no good.
That meant wind, earth, and ice might also be ineffective.
I had no time to consider which was best.
However, I didn’t have enough magic power to try them all.
“It’s a gamble.”
A fleeting moment.
A few seconds of thought amidst the dragon’s violence.
In such a fleeting environment, one technique came to mind.
“Compression.”
I gambled on its potential.
Magic is an image.
Incantations are merely a process to clarify that image.
When igniting a magical spark, it’s like imagining the flame of a lighter, then writing it down.
Turning fuel into gas and then striking a spark to light it.
If you were to put that into an incantation, it might become “Summon forth my small flame.”
With Spirit Magic, the incantation takes on a more conversational meaning, making it difficult to abandon incantations or cast without them, but that’s fine for now.
What I needed now was great magic.
It didn’t need to be spoken aloud, but its power would depend on imagination—a spell cast without incantation, using the shortest process for maximum power.
“Keep compressing it.”
A white disc, like a target, gradually formed.
It shone white, pulsed, and then the central part began to sharpen.
“Not yet.”
Meanwhile, the attacks from the Dragon King Pascal didn’t stop.
While imagining, I protected my remaining left hand and both legs, and perhaps even my head, rushing to complete the magic and advance to the target I was aiming for.
If I closed the distance this much, there would be no need to worry about breath attacks.
Furthermore, I was more agile, which made it difficult for him to target me.
However, he was still a battle-hardened Dragon King.
He maneuvered skillfully, using his claws, fangs, and tail to try and finish me off.
Honestly, his massive size was a lifesaver.
If it were the two instructors, I would have been worn down before I could even perform such a technique.
His overwhelming attacks were mostly large-scale, relying on his immense physical abilities, which allowed me to somehow hold on.
The fact that I was still alive was largely due to our advantageous matchup.
“Alright.”
Occasionally, I landed blows with my fists or kicks, but they had no effect, as if I had swatted a mosquito.
They should have been powerful enough to easily defeat a brown bear, but they seemed ineffective against a dragon.
“Let the chips fall where they may! Now, the gamble of a lifetime!!”
I unleashed my remaining strength towards the Dragon King, who was no longer even defending, and charged towards my target.
I aimed for his heart.
Naturally, he wasn’t going to let me target such a vital spot, and he attacked me even more ferociously. However, by focusing solely on landing this one blow, my thoughts became clear, and it felt as if the world was moving in slow motion.
Perhaps it was a state close to precognition, as I navigated through his attacks, moving along the shortest route, knowing what attack was coming next.
Recognizing that I was preparing a magical attack of considerable power, the Dragon King, for the first time, flapped his wings and attempted to fly into the sky.
If he escaped into the sky and increased the distance, my magic wouldn’t reach him, which was disadvantageous for me.
Furthermore, his mouth began to glow with his breath.
It was clear that he intended to create distance and then sweep away this entire area.
“Hurry, hurry,” I urged my slow-moving legs in the slowly flowing world to take one more step forward.
Finally, the Dragon King’s feet left the ground, soaring into the sky.
“You won’t escape!!”
I couldn’t let him do that.
I instinctively chose earth magic.
And it was a very simple spell.
While further concentrating the magic power in my right hand, I simultaneously summoned a massive rock above me.
A giant rock as if to engulf me.
With no restraint, only wanting to prevent him from flying into the sky, I summoned it without considering the consequences and let it fall.
The damage to the Dragon King would likely be negligible, but a massive rock the size of my own body appearing above me meant he couldn’t fly up.
The high-speed magic taught by Instructor Fushio and Evia-san.
There was no time to be moved by how useful it was; the rock stalled, collided with the Dragon King, and obstructed his flight into the sky, fulfilling its purpose. The shattered rock began to rain down.
Amidst this, I created a foothold with magic, occasionally using the falling rocks as stepping stones, and approached the distance where I could reach with my right hand.
“Falllll!!”
At that moment, the Dragon King’s eyes met mine, though I might have imagined it.
The dragon’s eyes widened, a truly memorable moment.
However, the pain in my right hand that I felt after our eyes met drowned out that impression.
My right hand, thrust out with all my might, and immediately afterwards, an explosive sound echoed throughout the area.
A dull sound vibrated through the air, resonating deeply in my gut.
As I heard that sound, the blow I delivered, sacrificing my right hand, made the Dragon King’s massive body sway and stagger backward with a palpable impact.
“Serves you right!”
Towards the falling opponent, I was thrown into the air by the recoil of my magic, but with my unharmed left hand, I gave him the middle finger and continued to fall into the gorge.
Today’s word:
If you set your mind to it, you will achieve it; if you don’t, you won’t.
No matter what…
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*The first volume of the novel has been published by Hayakawa Bunko JA.*
*It was released on October 18, 2018.*
*The e-book version was also released on October 31 of the same year.*
*The second volume was released on December 19.*
*The third volume was released on February 20, 2019.*
*The novel content is a revised and expanded version of what was posted on Shosetsuka ni Naro, with the addition of unpublished interlude chapters.*
*Please check out the new releases as well!!*
*A comic adaptation is being serialized in Kodansha’s “Young Magazine The Third.”*
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